ALI CARTER said it would be “back to the drawing board” after lamenting an “embarrassing” first round loss at the Coral UK Championship.

The Captain, who has battled back after suffering from a cancerous growth on his lung, received a standing ovation from a very busy Barbican crowd when he came into the main arena for his afternoon contest with Zhang Anda.

But he could not convert that goodwill into a victory - going down 6-5 in a final frame decider after leading 4-2 and 5-3.

Carter said: “It was terrible from start to finish, an absolutely abysmal performance by me. It’s very disappointing.

“It’s a long way back for me. I have been through a lot over the last six months and I have got some serious work to do.”

“I haven’t had a match for seven months, that’s probably why,” Carter added when asked if could pinpoint why his performance had been so flat.

“It’s just terrible - embarrassing to play that badly to be honest with you - but that’s the way it is. I will just have to go back and get back to the drawing board.”

Carter said the ovation he received did not put any extra pressure on him.

“I want to win for myself - first and foremost,” he said. “It’s disappointing to go out there and not be able to produce it for the crowd but it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Mark Allen, the UK finalist at York in 2011, had a scare in his opening match with amateur Eden Sharav.

The Northern Irishman trailed 2-0 before firing in breaks of 103, 80 and 125 in reeling off six frames in a row to book his place in the last 64.

He said: “I counted myself lucky to be 3-2 ahead. That was a big turning point - (winning) the fifth frame.”

Allen has reached four finals this season, winning the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany, and said he needed to improve his fitness to compete in the longer events.

He explained: “I am feeling that I have only just come up short. Fitness has let me down. (Four finals) shows my game is in good shape.”